Most Standards Equal For Spec. Ed. Students

Nearly all states have established the same content standards in
mathematics and reading for students with and without disabilities,
according to early findings from a federal report on the state and
local implementation of the main federal special education law, the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The findings for the 2002-03 school year show an increase from
1999-2000, when just nine out of 10 states had the same content
standards in math and reading. Both the IDEA and the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 require that students with disabilities have access
to the same content and standards as students without disabilities.

Sponsored by the office of special education programs in the U.S.
Department of Education, the study was conducted by the policy research
firm Abt Associates Inc.'s Bethesda, Md., office. A full draft report
will be presented to the Education Department in April, said Ellen
Schiller, a spokeswoman for Abt.

The organization did not provide exact numbers of states, only
percentages.

The researchers based the findings on surveys collected from all 50
states, and a nationally representative sample of districts and
schools. The group surveyed 959 districts, with an 87 percent response
rate, and 4,448 schools, with a 74 percent response rate, Ms. Schiller
said.

"We can see states and districts have made clear progress to include
students with disabilities in content standards, to ensure access to
opportunities," Ms. Schiller said last week.

The findings also show 90 percent of states had the same performance
standards in math and reading for students with and without
disabilities in the 2002-03 school year, up from 78 percent in 1999-
2000.

Rachel Quenemoen, a senior fellow at the National Center on
Educational Outcomes, located in Minneapolis at the University of
Minnesota, said the results show that most states are falling in line
with legal requirements that students with disabilities have access to
the same educational content.

"It's been pretty clear the expectation has been that all kids
worked on the same content to the same standards," Ms. Quenemoen said.
"A message is becoming clear that from a federal-law perspective,
states couldn't defend having different standards for students with
disabilities."

Rewards and Sanctions

The survey also looked at how states reward and penalize districts
or schools on the basis of test performance. Only a small number of
states offered rewards and sanctions based on the scores of students
with disabilities.

In the 2002-03 school year, 58 percent of states penalized districts
or schools based on student test performance, but only 10 percent
penalized schools on the basis of data about students in special
education. Meanwhile, 39 percent of states offered rewards to districts
and schools for test performance, with only 4 percent of states using
separate data on the test scores of students with disabilities for that
purpose, according to the findings.

States and districts face challenges in compiling the information to
publicly report data on test scores, the researchers found, especially
in breaking out information for subgroups of students, such as those
with disabilities. Such breakdowns by subgroup are required under the
No Child Left Behind law. Seventy-three percent of school districts
publicly report on aggregated test scores of students with
disabilities, and 46 percent break out the information on students with
disabilities, according to the study.

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